Lolz. I am dedicating this evening to the Division. Starting off with a survival when Joyce isn't at home yet and then going to try to complete the other weekly challenges (2 more Hard missions and 50 LMB in the DZ). It's going to take some work in the DZ but that's a good moment to try another build. Banshee (4) + something else (2) with a shock turret and First aid. Going up in the electronics and a bit less firearms. Probably AR + SMG as usual.

I'm not sure what's changed, but we were having a rubbish time leveling last night. Two of us in the party, and we were getting one or two-shotted by normal enemies at the same level as us. Really frustrating, so I left after about an hour. Meh.

Didn't you do the 22 story mission at level 21 though? It's not easy.. You'll probably find a big difference now you are the appropriate level.

Other than that, update 1.6 halved the value of stamina. Although NPC damage was supposed to be reduced a little to compensate. Maybe they messed it up for levelling characters.

As someone who recently levelled, I found that the story missions were pretty easy to do at the right level, but there were some side missions that were ridiculously hard. I took a video of one of them since it was such a joke. I might see if I can post it (if it doesn't reveal me doing something really dumb, which is likely).

And bear in mind that I was levelling in full purples, which I refreshed to the right level, every 2 levels.

So yeah, perhaps the way to go is to do the story missions at the right level but do side missions 1 or 2 levels below you.

During levelling, I never had any real difficulties because I was vastly overlevelled for most of the content. I completed each and every zone on the west side of the island before I moved on to the next. (Using a security wing perk I even cleared all of the collectibles before I moved on). Anyway, I can't comment on the situation in 1.6 but I will see what happens when I make a new char. When are you planning to play again, Rev? Maybe you could help me out with the side missions and everything in the lower level brackets for some easy exp?

I suppose I could go back and clear some zones and stuff. I just jump around to the zones that are more or less the same level as me, so maybe that's where I'm going wrong. The side missions are ALL THE SAME, though. It'd be nice to have some variety in there.

Not sure when I'll be on next, Fien. Happy to come along and quest with your alt at any time, though!

TD was one year old yesterday. They did a live stream where they announced their year 2 plans.

The good news is that the DLCs this year will be free.

The bad news is that there doesn't really seem to be much in the way of new content. At least not new zones or extended maps. Not for a very long time anyway.

In the first DLC, which is around 4 months away, they are adding in the equivalent of Diablo seasons. Not sure if you have to level from scratch again like you do in Diablo. But basically you'll get like a giant weekly assignment (but not weekly). So, instead of "do 10 hard missions" it'll be "do all the missions on hard using only a shotgun."

I'm making this up but it's what it sounded like.

We also get "feats". So, more achievements, with in game rewards. Like more hats.

And we also get loadouts. Which really should be there already. it's such a pain to switch builds right now.

And that's about it for DLC 2.1. DLC 2.2 will have some new story. Or something. They were a bit vague.

Lots of people crying about how it confirms that massive have already put the game on maintenance mode to work on the new Avatar game(s). But to be honest, lots of people cry about TD ALL THE FUCKING TIME. It must be the most toxic community I've ever seen for a game. Which is saying something.

Anyway enough of that. Personally, I really don't have the gear for it but what the hell, I went full on electronics and did a couple of hard missions running turrets and seeker mines. Had a blast. I need to finish unlocking my BoO for the master skill mods and get some more suitable gear but I really think it has potential. It wasn't even slow. It was probably quicker in some sections where the enemies stay in cover at distance.